Ellen Eardley

Ellen Eardley

Ellen Eardley returned to M&S in October 2017 after spending two and a half years as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Civil Rights & Title IX at the University of Missouri, where she became the university’s first Title IX administrator. At M&S, she practices civil rights and employment discrimination law while serving in a management capacity for the firm.

Ellen consults with organizations, boards, and non-profits on projects that enhance diversity, inclusion, and equity. She also represents people who have experienced race discrimination, sex discrimination, sexual assault, and other civil rights violations in the workplace and at school. Along with co-counsel from the National Women’s Law Center and A Better Balance, Ellen leads the litigation effort in Borders v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a pregnancy discrimination class action.

While at the University of Missouri, Ellen pioneered the first institutional equity office for students, faculty and staff, implemented new inclusion, diversity and equity policies, raised awareness of race, sex, religious, disability, and LGBTQ discrimination on campus, and led efforts to fairly investigate and adjudicate hundreds of reports of sexual violence and discrimination.

Prior to taking an academic administrator role, Ellen practiced law in Washington, DC, at Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, Woodley & McGillivary, and the National Women’s Law Center. She has secured millions of dollars and sweeping changes to corporate policies and practices on behalf of people who experienced discrimination across the country, working on cases such as:

  • Brown v. Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., No. 1:13-cv- 01345 (D.D.C.) ($7.15 million class action settlement of women sales employees’ disparate impact discrimination claims in compensation and promotion as well as sexual harassment claims).
  • White v. Holder, No. 510-2012-00077X (EEOC) (co-authored successful class certification brief on behalf of correctional officers’ claims of systemic sexual harassment in matter that ultimately settled for improvements in policies and practices and $20 million before an EEOC administrative law judge).
  • Carter v. Wells Fargo Advisors, L.L.C., No. 1:09-CV-01752-CKK (D.D.C.) (final approval of $32 million class action settlement resolving systemic gender discrimination in pay claims with significant programmatic relief).
  • Norflet v. John Hancock Life Insurance Co., No. 3:04-cv-1099 (D. Conn.) ($24 million settlement of claims of historic race discrimination against African-American customers in first half of the twentieth century).

A frequent lecturer and speaker, Ellen taught sex-based discrimination law at the American University Washington College of Law. She has an M.A. in Women’s Studies and focused her research on the intersections of gender and race discrimination in police surveillance.